Another season collaborating with @LibertyFairs results in a video full of ballerinas, brands and beautiful moments. I can't thank the whole Liberty team enough for trusting me with this vision and letting me run around with a camera and do my thing. Huge shoutout to @joekenneth_ for the inspiring voice over and @amaadbhatti for this stunning audio track. Please take a moment to watch the full video above. 🙏
I love working directly with brands, it allows me to foster a relationship that's build on trusting each others vision and creating a beautiful and engaging product that we are both happy with. I started working with Carolina Herrera a few months back when they asked me to shoot their resort presentation and visually we just clicked. I had a great time shooting it and the content I created was exactly what they were looking for.
Since then we have been working closely on a few projects the most recent of which was this BTS video of their bridal campaign. I wanted to go with a softer more romantic feel for this and though its really different with most of my other videos I was really happy with the way it came out. And the music Amaad Bhatti created for this was the perfect marriage (pun intended).
Moving forward you will see a bunch more work that I will be creating for them. The next project will be to shoot their show at fashion week, which i'm super excited about.
I finally got around to wrapping up our wedding video. So many great moments with incredible people. Thank you for joining us, much love.
Shot by Anthony Tone Torsiell & Matthew Heymann edited by me.
As you may remember this May I released a project with Roopa Vasudevan called HANDS UP. It was an interactive installation that explored law enforcements relationship with people of color. The exhibit opened at Flux Factory during the LIC Arts Open and received a lot of interesting press. I should have done a better job recapping the show on the blog but better late than never. Here is the exhibit recap video and you can see full project detail here.
Anik launched his EP "I Don't Know Yet" at a gallery in Chelsea where he had also curated a select group of artists to show their work. I was amongst those artists and created a new piece titled HYFN, which was a canvas completely covered in Halal-Haram stickers. Below is the recap video I created and a few images check it.
It's been incredible to watch this project blow up. I only created 25 hats to start with, thinking that if I sold through those I'd be happy. The first day that I launched them I received over 100 orders and they still haven't stopped. I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for the overwhelming support of this project and for rocking the hats proudly in the streets and on social media. Sending good vibes and much love to you all. Cheers.
If you follow me on Instagram you know that Humai and I went on a road trip down the Pacific Coast a few weeks back. I will be posting more on that shortly but wanted to share the video I cut together from the trip. I wasn't entirely consumed with capturing everything so this is just a montage of some of the stand out moments.
You've probably heard me mentioning Anik Khan on social media. He's a Queens based rapper of Bengali descent. We met a few months back at my Hands Up exhibit and hit it off. We vibed (he hates that word) on a bunch of stuff but mainly on that fact that both of our work has elements of the South Asian immigrant story. Anik asked me to creative direct his brand and honestly I didn't even have to think about it that much, I was down to help his voice be heard because it needs to be. He tells this story really well and young brown people need someone to look up to.
This is the first shoot we did together. It was to be the first set of imagery he puts out with the launch of his EP "I Don't Know Yet". I wanted to capture Anik appearing from within a cloud a smoke and show him repping both his Benagli and American heritage. Keep your ear on this dude and check his music below.
If you follow me on social media you have probably seen that I released my new project titled HALAL-HARAM. This is an idea that I have been thinking about for a long time. Duality of culture and thought has always been a part of my identity : Pakistani-American, Muslim-Pakistani etc. For a lot of my life I struggled with this balance of retaining my cultural identity as a Pakistani and absorbing everything New York City culture had to offer. This went on for a long time and eventually I stopped looking at it as a struggle and embraced the richness and beauty within my hyphenated existence. This project is about the spectrum between these two forces of Halal and Haram and how we all fall somewhere on it - to be ok with where that is.
It’s a common misconception that Halal is a type of cuisine, mainly perpetuated by street food vendors. In fact Halal, in the context of food, is how an animal is slaughtered with the blessing of God according to Islamic tradition. When you see street food vendors with a Halal sign, it only means that the meat was slaughtered and prepared a certain way.
Halal in a more general sense is about the morality of human action, it’s a way of life. Halal is the righteous path. The opposite force of Halal is Haram. Haram quite literally means sinful or forbidden. It’s the other end of the spectrum.
The intention of this project is to get people thinking about these words at a higher level - a more conceptual level. To redefine them for ourselves. When these types of words are used as labels it is divisive and polarizing. We all have a little bit of a dichotomy between 'Halal' and 'Haram' and it means something different to everyone. We should accept and embrace that.
The project manifested itself in the form of snapback hats. I've created one labeled HALAL and one HARAM. Both are made in New York City and are available for sale today here or by shopping below.
Thanks you for all the love and support so far. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to reach out on twitter @atifateeq.
I never really direct narratives, most of my work is documentary style. So when the guys at Blind Barber asked me to shoot their father day commercial I was pretty excited to jump on board. This was a chance to explore a different way of shooting and work on a project with the homies.
I didnt know if I'd enjoy this type of directing but it was a lot of fun and I was pretty pleased with the result. Check it and let me know your thoughts.
-A
